Yahweh is Spirit
(John 4:24a)
1. A THIRD GRADERS EXPLANATION OF GOD was written by Danny Dutton, age 8 ...for his third grade homework assignment to "Explain God."
One of God’s main jobs is making people. He makes them to replace the ones that die so there will be enough people to take care of things on earth. He doesn’t make grown-ups, just babies. I think because they are smaller and easier to make. That way, He doesn’t have to take up His valuable time teaching them to talk and walk. He can just leave that to mothers and fathers.
God’s second most important job is listening to prayers. An awful lot of this goes on, since some people, like preachers and things, pray at times besides bedtime. God doesn’t have time to listen to the radio or TV because of this. Because He hears everything there must be a terrible lot of noise in His ears, unless He has thought of a way to turn it off. God sees everything and hears everything and is everywhere which keeps Him pretty busy. So you shouldn’t go wasting His time by going over your mom and dad’s head asking for something they said you couldn’t have.
2. “The turning point in our lives is when we stop seeking the God we want and start seeking the God who is.” Patrick Morley
3. This current series is meant to remedy some of the common and not-so-common misunderstandings people have about Yahweh, the God of the Bible.
John 4:24, “God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.”
Main Idea: What does it mean and imply when Jesus says, “God is Spirit?”
I. What it Does NOT Mean.
A. Not a reference to the Holy Spirit ALONE.
• The Spirit is God, but so are the Son and the Father.
B. It does not mean God is one person; He is three Persons SIMULTANEOUSLY.
1. The Greek article and the English articles.
There are 11 rules for using articles in English, which is why foreigners learning English have such a hard time. Consider this one, for example: Rule 11 – Use or Omit Articles for Locations to Change Meaning
We change the meaning of a sentence containing a location noun by either using or omitting the article the.
• I am going to the church – I am going to the building that is a church. I am going there for a reason but it may not be to worship, it may be because it’s a beautiful building or I’m meeting someone there.
• I am going to church – I am going to worship at a church.
2. God’s essence is spiritual.
3. Have you ever seen a play where one actor plays several roles? That is not how it is with God. The one God is three distinct Persons.
C. It does not mean He is BARELY above angels and demons.
II. Among Other Things, It Means God is a Spiritual BEING, Not a Material One.
Because God is a spiritual being does not mean the physical is bad, evil, or worthless. God created the physical, and pronounced it “good.”
Forms of Christian belief that tell us to despise our bodies or not care for our health or well-being are denying the goodness and beauty of the physical. We will one day have resurrected bodies and will not just be spirits. God has a plan for the physical.
A. God sometimes takes on the APPEARANCE of a man.
1. We call these “theophanies.”
2. When God the Son became a man, the human nature of Jesus was joined to His divine nature into one Person. In a sense when you saw Jesus, you saw God, but you really would have seen God veiled in flesh.
B. God is an INFINITE Spirit-being (I Kings 8:27).
“But will God indeed dwell on the earth? Behold, heaven and the highest heaven cannot contain you; how much less this house that I have built!” (I Kings 8:27)
1. Wayne Grudem defines God’s spirituality as follows: “God’s spirituality means that God exists as a being that is not made of any matter, has no parts or dimensions, is unable to be perceived by our bodily senses, and is more excellent than any other kind of existence.”
2. Thus God fills the entire universe and exists beyond it.
C. This explains why God uses what we think of as less concrete SYMBOLS to represent Himself.
1. The Shekinah (pillar of cloud). The Shekinah demonstrates how God presences spreads out to fill His creation.
2. A Pillar of Fire demonstrates God’s holiness, wrath, and purity.
3. Wind for the Holy Spirit (in addition to a more concrete dove/heavenly)
Deuteronomy 4:33-34, “Take care, lest you forget the covenant of the Lord your God, which he made with you, and make a carved image, the form of anything that the Lord your God has forbidden you. For the Lord your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God.”
III. God Is UNIQUE Among Other Spiritual Beings: He is Not A Creature.
A. There are three categories of PERSONS in the universe: God (Who is Three Persons), angels (including demons) and humans.
B. Angels are spiritual beings, but are created and LIMITED.
C. Human beings are created and have BOTH physical and spiritual natures, though limited.
D. Humans are created in the IMAGE of God: how can that be if God is not a physical being?
1. We do not look like God.
2. The Biblical visions of God are just that, visions, representations.
3. John 1:18, “No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father's side, he has made him known.”
4. I Timothy 6:16, “who alone has immortality, who dwells in unapproachable light, whom no one has ever seen or can see. To him be honor and eternal dominion. Amen.”
5. We are like God in a limited way, in a way that animals are not.
6. We have a spiritual nature and can relate to and fellowship with God; we can enjoy one another’s company.
7. Floyd Barackaman, in Practical Christian Theology, writes, “God’s personhood is indicated by His having personal features, such as we find in ourselves, including unique selfhood with its self-awareness….and self-determination or the ability to choose and direct one’s affairs…morality with its awareness of good and evil…and perpetuity…intelligence…reason… emotion…communication.”
IV. Although God is Spirit, He is Personal; Scripture Refers to Him as a “HE.”
A. The pronouns are used in both TESTAMENTS.
B. Even the Holy Spirit is NOT an “it” but a “He” (e.g., John 16:8).
C. Both mean and women were created in the IMAGE of God, but the order of creation is significant.
Genesis 1:27, “So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.
I Corinthians 11:7-12passim: “For man was not made from woman, but woman from man. Neither was man created for woman, but woman for man… Nevertheless, in the Lord woman is not independent of man nor man of woman; for as woman was made from man, so man is now born of woman. And all things are from God.”
D. Although a few Scriptures use motherly terms to refer to God’s love for His people, He is always a “He,” and NEVER a “She” or an “It.”
Isaiah 49:15, “Can a woman forget her nursing child, that she should have no compassion on the son of her womb? Even these may forget, yet I will not forget you.”
So does Paul in I Thessalonians 2;7, “But we were gentle among you, like a nursing mother taking care of her own children…”
Conclusion
1. In the introduction, I quoted Pat Morley: “The turning point in our lives is when we stop seeking the God we want and start seeking the God who is.”
2. Where are you in all this? Are you ready to embrace the God of the Bible as He presents Himself, or the god of popular folk religion, the god we want?
